Canada to require vax on planes and trains

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 6:02 pm

Federal public servants, RCMP and air and rail travellers must be vaccinated by month's end, Trudeau says
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled his government's mandatory vaccine policy today — a mandate that will require public servants to either get their shots by month's end or be forced into an unpaid leave of absence.

All would-be travellers must also be fully vaccinated by Oct. 30 before boarding planes, trains or marine vessels.

To bolster stalled vaccination rates, the federal government will require all of its employees in the "core public administration" and the RCMP to be fully vaccinated or to apply for a medical or religious exemption by the end of the month.

Federal contractors, like cleaning staff, must also be fully vaccinated to gain access to government buildings. The estimated 267,000 employees covered by this policy must report their vaccination status by Oct. 29.

If employees still haven't had their shots or received some sort of accommodation under the Canadian Human Rights Act two weeks after that date, they will face "disciplinary action that could ultimately cost them their job," a senior government official said at a technical briefing with reporters ahead of Trudeau's announcement.

Unvaccinated employees will be barred from going to work, either in person or remotely, and they will be put on administrative leave and denied pay. A senior official said these employees will not qualify for employment insurance (EI) benefits.

"These travel measures, along with mandatory vaccination for federal employees, are some of the strongest in the world because when it comes to keeping you and your family safe, when it comes to avoiding lockdowns for everyone, this is no time for half measures," Trudeau said.

"If you've done the right thing and gotten vaccinated, you deserve the freedom to be safe from COVID. To have your kids be safe from COVID. To get back to the things you love."

lots more at the link
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federa ... -1.6201528

Apollo91881 · Post by **Apollo91881** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 7:21 pm

Good!!
Now everywhere else.

TWY · Post by **TWY** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:32 pm

Will be interesting to see what they define as "fully vaccinated" going forward. As immunity wanes, is there going to be some sort of card that tracks your booster shots that will "expire" after a certain amount of time of not getting a shot? Folks that got vaccinated in January are in a very different spot than those vaccinated in September.

ExPenhMan · Post by **ExPenhMan** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:04 pm

I just arrived in Canada from Thailand Wednesday morning. I flew through Canadian border services system in a breeze. Fastest ever. I uploaded my Thai vaccine certificate (2 of them in hand) to the ArriveCAN app less than 72 hours in advance. No issues. Got my "receipt" within minutes.

At Toronto airport I put my passport into the machine reader, answered a few queries, including customs declaration (got rid of the paper card -- yay!). No lineup to the CBSA officials. Two minor questions about how long I was away. Got a PHAC (Public Health) sticker on the passport cover, showed it at the exit and was waved through to the luggage carrousel.

My Thai vax record showed two AZ shots, with date, passport number and lot numbers. Everything was on the ArriveCAN computer record.

Two weeks before I went, I uploaded the same certificates to the Toronto health agency, which sent the data to the provincial system. Took about 10 days. All approved. Now I got my "vaccine passport," digitally speaking. So can enter anywhere. On my first night at a pub last night, no one checked. But my Bangkok friend and I are well known there and we sat outside anyway.

Got to say, it felt like a well oiled machine.